Yes it is Summertime! Days of the sweet juicy fruits, eating late on the porch in the warm gnatted evenings.. I smell sweet dusky tomatoes from my Grandad's greenhouse, salty seaweed in Cornwall as we drop lines from a boat to catch more weeds... Rivers and mountains and camping stoves, music - music - music - its festival time!Happy Solstice Friends! - Jen Delyth and Chris Chandler

Chandler took this photo of Jen a few years back on a visit to Stonehenge, where Jen has celebrated the Summer Solstice with the Druid's and many friends back in the day.

Raven is a poetic guardian of the solstice sun as it dies and is reborn once again.

Seasonal rituals at the solar Solstice and Equinox festivals, and the four fire festivals,

encourage the fertile life giving force, marking the journey and return of the sun. As life follows death, at the darkest day of the mid-Winter Solstice, the sun is reborn and the days grow long again, as the longest day of the Summer Solstice, marks the beginning of the slow waning of the sun's power back into the darkness of winter once again.

Raven is the eater of death - of the darkness - and is wise in the Mysteries of rebirth. She embodies the divine qualities of the sun with her bright eyes and keen intelligence, possessing a sharp clarity of vision into the shadowy unknown. So Raven is a poetic guardian of the solstice sun as it dies and is reborn once again. ...Read More About Solstice Raven here

"The Baltân, the sacred fire of the Druids, was obtained directly from the sun, and all the hearth fires in Britain were rekindled from it. These fires were accompanied by feasts in honor of Bel, the Celtic deity of light, and in Druidic days they were carried out with much pomp and ceremony.

The fire was done in this way; nine men would turn their pockets inside out, and see that every piece of money and all metals were off their persons. Then the men went into the nearest woods, and collected sticks of nine different kinds of trees. These were carried to the spot where the fire was to be built. There a circle was cut in the sod, and the sticks were set crosswise. All around the circle the people stood and watched the proceedings. One of the men would then take two bits of oak, and rub them together until a flame was kindled. This was applied to the sticks and soon a large fire was made.

Sometimes two fires were set up side by side. These fires, whether one or two, were called coelcerth, or bonfire. Round cakes of oatmeal and brown meal were split in four, and placed in a small flour-bag, and everybody present had to pick out a portion. The last bit in the bag fell to the lot of the bag-holder.

Each person who chanced to pick up a piece of brown-meal cake was compelled to leap three times over the flames, or to run thrice between the two fires, by which means the people thought they were sure of a plentiful harvest. I have also heard my grandfather and father say that in times gone by the people would throw a calf in the fire when there was any disease among the herds. The same would be done with a sheep if there was anything the matter with a flock. I can remember myself seeing cattle being driven between two fires to "stop the disease spreading".

-
Marie Trevelyan, Folk Lore and Folk Tales of Wales, 1909

1970s STONEHENGE

Here is a rare picture of the young Jen Delyth at the ancient stones back in the 1970s,

when there were no ropes or gift shops!

(With sister Susan, brother Andy, and Brandy the dog!)

Here we are again, celebrating the Solstice - the longest day, the shortest night. The wheel of the year spins, and the light is strong and long.

Now shipping! Through last few days in June, and then August 26th onwards:)

NEWS FROM THE STUDIO!

We are super busy making prints, canvas', textiles for our summer events..

Jen has made some stylin' new Celtic Cuban Shirts, new prints on her popular women's bamboo empress tops, and some new large stretched canvas' in bronze float frames - including the new WOLF MOON!

Its exciting preparing for our grand tour, July and August, and we hope to see many of you out there!We will have Wilson here holding down the studio shipping... But June is best time to get us any custom orders before we leave!

FEATURED ARTWORK

Celtic Mandala Calendar

The Celts were a people who lived close to nature. The cycle of the seasons, cosmos, earth, elements, plants, animals, humanity, and otherworldly beings, are expressed throughout Celtic mythology and religion. In this design, the people of the Irish Goddess Danu or the Welsh Tylwyth Teg - are woven into the ancient cross-symbol creating a mandala celebrating the Spirit in Nature and inter-connection of all living things.

We're excited to have been invited to the amazing Irish Music Festival in DUBLIN OH!

&

The Irish Fair on Harriet Island, downtown Saint Paul MN!

So busy getting ready for a whirlwind tour, and looking forward to seeing many of you in July at the Oregon Country Fair, Portland Scottish Highland Games, and Seattle Scottish Highland Games - and make new friends in DUBLIN OHIO & Saint Paul!

Jen - I am still wearing and enjoying (and people ALWAYS admire) the gold tree of life medallion you made for me 3 years ago.. It is my totem and I love it. Thank you. Heather - New Jersey December 2015

"Just recv'd my order.. .OH MY GOSH!!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

Thank you so much for your super fast shipping and for a beautiful piece of amazing art in my home!"